Fighting continues as warring sides begin pre-negotiation talks with Saudi Arabia and the US as mediators.
- Air raids and fighting continued in the capital of Khartoum, including in the city of Khartoum North across the Nile from Khartoum, where warplanes and explosions were heard overnight.
- The Sudanese army pushed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) out of Nyala, in the state of South Darfur, according to Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan.
- Save the Children UK said on Saturday that a former school in Darfur was burned down during fighting there last week, adding that at least 190 children have been killed since the conflict’s start.
Humanitarian situation:
- On Saturday, the World Health Organization said 30 tonnes of medical supplies had arrived in Port Sudan by plane, one of the first such shipments since the fighting began. WHO is still waiting on security and access clearances to make similar shipments to Khartoum, where the few functioning hospitals are running out of supplies.
- Qatar flew a relief flight into Sudan carrying about 40 tonnes of food and leaving with 150 evacuees.
- At least 550 people have been killed, including civilians, and more than 4,900 have been wounded as of May 1, according to the Sudanese health ministry, since the conflict broke out on April 15.
- The UN refugee agency estimates that the number of people fleeing Sudan is likely to reach 860,000.
Diplomacy:
- The RSF’s Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo confirmed the group’s participation in the indirect talks taking place in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah between the warring parties. Saudi Arabia and the United States welcomed the start of these “pre-negotiation talks”, the first serious attempt to end the fighting, although both sides said they would only discuss a humanitarian truce, not an end to the war.
- White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, travelled to Saudi Arabia to mediate in the talks alongside Saudi leaders.
- Sudan’s pro-democracy movement said the talks would be “a first step” to ending the conflict.
- Turkey is set to move its embassy in Khartoum to Port Sudan after the Turkish ambassador’s car was hit by gunfire, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Source: Al Jazeera
